The Early Arrival
by r-dechagny
Summary: Raoul de Chagny and Christine Daae are looking forward to being first-time parents but their nursery is far from ready. (At least Christine isn't due for another few weeks, right...?)


Raoul had been counting down the days since the second he found out that Christine was pregnant. Christine had come running out of the bathroom, waving her pregnancy test in the air with her hair sticking out in all directions, yelling excitedly. Raoul had still been in bed asleep at the time but he remembered that it had been the best wake up call of his life. There were only thirty five days to go and there was still a lot that needed to be done if the labour and birth of their son was going to smoothly, and Raoul was planning for the entire thing to run like clockwork. He had a schedule, so everything needed to stick to that schedule for things to be as stress-free and relaxing for Christine as possible. However, there had been a delay in building the nursery and so the yellow and blue sailing boat wallpaper hadn't finished going up, which meant the cot and mobile hadn't been able to go in for lack of space, plus the baby monitors needed taking back to the store because they were faulty. Raoul hadn't finished packing his and Christine's bags ready for whenever they needed to get to the hospital either. Christine was lying on the sofa with her feet on Raoul's lap as he told her about this, giving her a foot rub at the same time, talking so fast that she could barely keep up. Christine felt as though Raoul had been in pre-parental panic mode for months.

"Hey, calm down. It's going to be fine," she told him softly. "Let's enjoy this time before the baby comes whilst we can. I don't want this to be any more stressful than it needs to be. We'll just take this all as it comes."

Raoul let out a deep breath, trying to breathe out all of his tension and stress, feeling all of that bad energy leave his body, even if it was just for an hour or two. "You're right. I'll try and keep calm from now on," he promised.

"We can go out tomorrow and do some more shopping, okay? We don't need to do everything at once. We still have time," Christine told him with a smile, putting a hand on her bump to feel their baby kicking. "Gosh, it's like he's trying to kick himself out already! Feel that!" Christine took Raoul's hand and put it to her belly.

Raoul's face lit up and he laughed, delighted. "He's eager to see his beautiful Mummy, that's what that is." He leaned over to kiss Christine and then her bump. "Have I ever told you how much I love you both?"

Christine practically giggled. "You have, almost every day for the past eight months, but I won't object to hearing it all over again."

Their shopping trip started with the couple looking at baby clothes, both Raoul and Christine melting at the sight of the tiny shoes and socks, frilly dresses and colourful dungarees. Some of the clothes were so small they seemed to look more like dress up items for a doll than they did an actual human person, even if they were for newborns. Raoul kept picking up items of clothing and holding them against Christine's bump, pretending that their unborn child was trying them on. Christine laughed, kissed his cheek, then batted his hand away so she could look at the night clothes. They had tiny dressing gowns and slippers, onesies and two pieces – all with varying colours and patterns, but Christine gasped when her fingers brushed across a particular pair of pyjamas. The top was white with blue sleeves, a red sailing boat on the front with matching blue trousers but with multicoloured sailing boats on it; yellow, red and white. Raoul rushed over after hearing Christine's gasps, thinking that something terrible had happened but burst out laughing with relief when Christine waved the pyjamas at him with an excited grin.

"We have to get them! They match the nursery perfectly, so clearly it's fate that we've come across them."

Raoul grinned at his wife, fond, before kissing her temple and taking the pyjamas. "You're definitely right."

"I'm always right," she said smugly, half-serious.

"Yes, dear," he said, trying his best not to laugh.

They got an exchange for their baby monitors next, then picked up some more games, books, blankets, nappies and anything else that they either needed to stock up on or buy that was on Raoul's list. He ticked the piece of paper every time they put something in their basket until he was confident that they had enough, and that they were totally prepared for their baby's arrival in only thirty four days now.

Christine's feet and back were aching by the time they got back home and she swore that she could hear them screaming when she walked. Raoul gave her another foot rub (something that had become almost a daily occurrence) and ran her a warm bath, pouring in oats to create oat-milk, helping to soothe her cracked and dry skin. He sat on the edge of the bath, massaging Christine's shoulders in small firm circles, dropping kisses to her head every few seconds, unable to help himself. Christine sunk as far as she could into the bath without getting stuck, closing her eyes and letting herself relax. When she was ready, Raoul helped her out of the bath, she got changed into pyjamas and set out for a nap, cuddling Raoul's pillow.

Raoul, however, was less relaxed than he had been as they walked past their unfinished nursery to get to their bedroom. He decided that he had to tackle the remaining wallpaper in the nursery or he would be awake all night thinking about it. The nightmares of an unfinished nursery just weeks away from Christine's due date would haunt him forever. He turned on his Disney soundtrack CD, kicked off his shoes and armed himself with a brush and a pot of wallpaper paste before setting about his mammoth task, singing along to I'll Make a Man Out of You as dramatically as he could without waking Christine. He was surprisingly good at hanging wallpaper with hardly any air bubbles and he always managed to hang it straight and lined it up with the rest of the paper on the wall. It was much easier to hang wallpaper when you're pretending to be Ursula the Sea Witch, Raoul had discovered.

He had only been decorating for an hour when it happened.

"RAOUL!"

The terrified scream made Raoul jump five feet in the air. His foot went through the wallpaper he was holding, which made him trip and knock the CD player to the floor. He leaped out of the way of the CD player only to knock over the pot of wallpaper paste and stepped straight into it, sliding and wobbling about in it for a moment as he tried to steady to himself, arms outstretched. Christine screamed his name again and Raoul had to abandon his shoes to get to her. Christine was sat on the edge of the bed and trying to breathe deeply.

"What's wrong?!" he cried, standing on the balls of his feet, ready to spring into action no matter what was going on. He was ready to fight even the biggest of home intruders.

"My waters just broke!"

Raoul was stood with his mouth ajar, eyes unblinking and dropped down on the soles of his feet, vaguely terrified. He'd be less worried and panicked if it had been a home intruder, he realised. "Your what just did what?" he managed to stutter out.

Christine threw a pillow at him. "Call the bloody midwife!"

"He's too early! We don't have the nursery finished or our bags packed!" Raoul cried, running around for his phone.

Christine got up to start pacing, hoping to ease her growing panic too. "Oh, I'm sorry my going into labour has come at such an inconvenient time for you!"

"How are your contractions?" Raoul asked, his phone pressed to ear, clearly trying his best not to let his pre-parental anxiety show too much at this stage.

"None at all," Christine reported back.

"Okay, I'll phone for a taxi to take us to the hospital and I'll grab everything we need since we have time."

Christine sighed. "Great. I'm getting changed."

The taxi arrived in record time and Raoul practically ushered Christine into the back seat, keeping communication with both their midwife and Christine whilst checking he had all of their hospital essentials, going through his list again with a pen that didn't actually work. They're taken to the maternity ward once they get there and Raoul isn't comforted to find out that Christine wasn't even close to giving birth yet, especially since he was still without his shoes. He flexed his toes, frowning at his socks, muttering about his shoes and the wallpaper paste as Christine stared at him, mildly disbelieving.

"I love you, Raoul, I really really do, but there are more important things to be worrying about right now than your bloody shoes! Please shut up about your shoes!"

Raoul gave her a sheepish grin. "You're right, sorry. I'll go and get you some tea." He kissed her cheek and slipped quickly out of the room.

Christine's labour was very slow, almost boringly slow - it made her tired and cranky and made her swear like a sailor. Raoul sat behind her and massaged her shoulders like he usually did, whispering encouraging words and telling her stories to distract her. He managed to start a sing-along with her, their midwife and some of the other doctors and nurses on the ward and they all ended up doing a Disney medley, since Raoul's CD player was lying in wallpaper paste at home and he still had the songs stuck in his head. Later on in the evening, Raoul napped as Christine chatted away with Meg on the phone.

Raoul knew Christine was ready to give birth when she yelled out in pain and chucked a cushion at his sleeping head to wake him, making the midwife snort with laughter and making him shoot up in his chair with a dazed and confused look on his face. Christine yelped every few seconds and Raoul staggered to his feet, slipping on the floor in his socks as he went to hold her hand and kiss her.

"You're doing great!" he told her.

Christine squeezed Raoul's hand like a vice, her face flushed and damp with sweat. She had large bags under eyes and her hair had gone from curls to frizz. "I hate you," she breathed through gritted teeth. "This is your fault! And I bloody well told you that he was trying to kick his way out of me!"

"I love you too, darling," he said simply, ignoring the pain in his hand and stroking Christine's hair. "You can get through this part."

"We're never having sex again!" she bellowed, pushing as hard as she could.

"If that will make you happy then that's fine by me," he assured her.

The midwife snorted. "If I had cash for every time I heard a couple say that then I'd be retiring thirty years early."

"I mean it!" Christine spluttered.

"I know," Raoul said calmly. "It's okay."

The midwife talked Christine through it, telling her to push and keep breathing evenly. Christine gripped Raoul as tightly as she was able to, grunting and crying, until she wasn't the only one crying. A loud cry from a newborn baby filled the delivery room and Christine's discomfort and pain eased into pure motherly bliss. Raoul kissed her face and told her how much he loved her – he was tearing up too. The midwife wrapped the baby in a blanket and gave him to Christine to hold, congratulating them. Their little baby had Raoul's big, bright blue eyes and already had little tufts of Christine's curls. He had stopped crying and was now wriggling around in the blanket quite happily, squinting up at his parents who were leaning over him. They both kissed his head and Raoul burst into tears properly, which only made Christine cry again too. Even the midwife got tears in her eyes as she watched them cuddle their newborn son, making quiet promises to him to love and protect him forever and to give him the world he deserved.

"Have you picked a name?" the midwife asked them.

"Hugo," Christine said softly, looking down at the baby's sleepy eyes. "Hugo Gustave Philippe de Chagny."

The midwife smiled. "Hugo de Chagny," she repeated, considering the name. "That's adorable. Congratulations again, guys."

Christine and Hugo were allowed to go home after a few days, much to Raoul's delight. He had put up pastel blue 'welcome home' banners and balloons around their living room and bought a tiny teddy called Dandelion for Hugo to sleep with. Dandelion was light brown in colour with yellow ears and a pink nose, the inside of his paws were yellow and he had little black glass eyes that twinkled. His fur was soft and feathery and he had a little yellow tummy, too.

Christine grinned and kissed Raoul, muttering a thank you and sat down on the sofa with a relieved sound, Hugo in her arms who was enamoured with his Dandelion bear already. Hugo was a relatively well-behaved baby that barely cried and slept soundly most of the time, leaving Christine time to sleep too. Raoul, who had completely forgotten about their lack of cot whilst he was proudly telling everyone that he was now a father, and that his son was the cutest baby in the world, found the time to build their Ikea cot when Meg reminded him to do so, mouthing his curses when he hit his thumb with the hammer as not to wake up Christine and Hugo who were napping in the next room. He managed to save his CD player (by some miracle) and he finished putting the wallpaper up so the nursery was somewhat functional and, more importantly, safe, for Hugo to use. When the nursery was almost fully decorated the next day and Hugo was settled into his boat pyjamas, Raoul put the Bear Necessities on repeat for hours as it made Hugo wriggle and squirm like he was trying to dance and it wore him out enough to sleep, much to Christine and Raoul's amusement.

Hugo felt as comfortable in his cot as much as he did on Christine's chest, clutching a damp Dandelion from where he had been putting him in his mouth and his sea blue blanket, dreaming peacefully as Christine and Raoul watched over him. Christine gently stroked Hugo's chubby, rosy cheek, her heart so full of love that she thought it might break her ribs since that kind of love could not be contained in such a small space that it had to spill out. Raoul kissed Christine's shoulder.

"Nothing's ever going to be the same again. In a good way this time," he said happily, beaming from ear to ear.

"In the best way," she agreed with a whisper.

(A/N: Yay, my first fic in over three years! Be gentle and constructive. :D (And yes, Raoul is definitely the type of person to own a CD player in 2016))


End file.
